Unserialized and untraceable firearms, known as ghost guns, are increasingly used in violent crime.

SAY YOU WANT A HANDGUN. One way to acquire it is to go to a licensed gun store or dealer and buy one. That process triggers a 10-day waiting period under California law. And you will need to show identification, proving you are at least 21 years old, and lawfully present in the United States. You’ll also need to show that you’ve completed a gun safety class. You’ll pay $37.19 in state fees, which cover the cost for the dealer to run a background check on you and to enter the acquisition into a registry of gun ownership transfers.

Or, you can skip this whole process.

You might try shopping on eBay, where you can find a kit to assemble a Glock 17 for $89.99. You can pay with Venmo or PayPal, and expect the kit to arrive in just a few days.

Such kits are legal – they are a way of saving money, and may be of interest to mechanically minded hobbyists – and they come with a required step of stamping on a serial number.

But law enforcement officers say people often don’t complete that final step of adding a serial number. These unserialized, untraceable firearms are known as “ghost guns” and increasingly, they are the guns used in committing crimes locally.

“We’ve yet to come by someone who says, ‘I’m a hunter and intend to use this lawfully and just don’t want to be tracked down,’” Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges says. “People who are carrying guns because they intend to commit some act of violence don’t want to be tracked down. You’re almost foolish if you’re a criminal to not get a ghost gun.”

GUNS WITHOUT SERIAL NUMBERS are not a new phenomenon. Since well before DIY kits, people figured out how to destroy serial numbers with chemicals, or scratch them out. Many parts are available for order for people who want to repair or customize a firearm legally. But combined with the prevalence of 3D printers and widely available patterns for 3D printing gun parts, it’s become easy to manufacture guns cheaply and abundantly. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, from 2016-2021, there were approximately 45,240 suspected privately made firearms reported as having been recovered by law enforcement from potential crime scenes, including 692 homicides or attempted homicides. And that is just a fraction of the unserialized weapons out there.

In Salinas, police seize guns on an almost daily basis, says Cmdr. Lalo Villegas, who oversees SPD’s Violence Suppression Task Force. He estimates 60-70 percent are hand-built. “Anybody can make one,” he says. “They just have to get certain parts and put it all together, and it’s ready to go.”

Officers in agencies like Seaside PD find guns are more common than ever. “We don’t really have a choice,” Borges says. “We have to accept that there are more guns out there on the street.”

“When Polymer80 started production, that’s when it exploded,” says Seaside Police Cmdr. Matt Doza, referring to the nation’s largest manufacturer of ghost gun kits and component parts.

A personally manufactured P80 looks and feels like a professionally manufactured gun. “If we were to lay them out side by side, you would not be able to tell a ghost gun from a legitimate, serialized firearm,” Doza says.

Of course, there is a range. In one Seaside case about a year-and-a-half ago, a teen was manufacturing ghost guns using a 3D printer. “He wasn’t very good at it,” Borges says. “These guns were misfiring, having mini explosions in the person’s hand. Luckily, nobody was hurt.”

IF A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER is out investigating a suspected crime and they obtain a gun, they can enter the serial number into a database to get the history of that gun, while they’re out in the field – they don’t even need to go back to the station. That shows the chain of custody and whether a gun was reported stolen.

“When I first became an officer, if we came across a gun, most of the time it was previously reported stolen or the owner didn’t report it stolen because they didn’t know it was,” says Monterey Police Lt. Jake Pinkas. “Now that is much more rare. It’s a ghost gun. We are not seeing the stolen gun as much as the homemade gun.”

Even without ghost guns, police officers say that people have long found ways of acquiring guns; the stolen gun market has long been a robust business. “If someone is determined to get their hands on a firearm, they are going to do what it takes to get their hands on a firearm,” Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Andy Rosas says.

But as it gets easier to own a gun, officers say they are finding more and more of them. And not just from hardened criminals; Borges and Villegas both say it’s not just gang members, but anyone who might possess a ghost gun. That includes unhoused people who keep them for personal protection, and it includes under-age teens trying to make a buck by building and selling guns.

“Ghost guns are an issue everywhere,” Rosas says. “It’s unfortunately easy to manufacture these items and get into the wrong hands and cause problems.

“When I say ‘wrong hands,’ it’s a variety of different hands we don’t want these guns getting into.”

Those wrong hands can mean a variety of things, but in general they mean that people get an easy way to dodge laws and prohibitions (see stories, p. 16 and 20). If a domestic violence restraining order prohibits someone from owning a gun, that will show up when a licensed seller conducts a background check. The person may be too young to own a gun, which would block a licensed vendor from selling to them. They may be convicted of a felony and prohibited from possessing guns. Or there may be a gun violence restraining order issued due to mental illness, meant to protect the prospective gun owner from harming themselves.

“Unserialized means that the person is very possibly prohibited from owning firearms,” Pinkas says. “To skirt around that, they are going the ghost gun route.”

(The presence of ghost guns is small but growing in Monterey; in 2023-2024 year to date, MPD recovered seven ghost guns and 18 serialized firearms.)

In July, members of Salinas’ Violence Suppression Task Force served search warrants on two homes on Merced Street, and discovered five completed handguns, 25 handgun slides, 25 magazines, firearm parts, manufacturing tools and three 3D printers – two of which were in the process of making a firearm at the time. Two men were arrested for illegally manufacturing and illegally selling firearms. Villegas says homemade Glock-style handguns go for $600-$1,300 on the street.

Of course, even legally purchased firearms can inflict violence and death. But when guns are made and sold outside of the legal marketplace, specifically to evade the regulatory eye, it’s cause for concern. “Passing laws against people that are legally able to possesthem just hurts those folks,” Villegas says. “It doesn’t really hurt criminals.”